Stop Asking for Link Exchanges and Start Blogging

| November 11, 2010 | 31 Comments
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Why do some people think that if they ask for a link exchange that you will automatically give it to them?  Well, I’m here to tell you, that I never do link exchanges.  So stop asking me!

I think it is a selfish move and downright rude for people to ask for link exchanges.  Some of you may not feel that way, but that’s how I feel when someone emails me and asks me to do a link exchange.  I almost never respond to those emails/requests.

The sad thing about this is that when I check out the person’s blog, we usually have nothing in common.  The blogger has never visited my blog or interacted with me on any other social networking sites.  Who do you think I am, Boo Boo the Fool?

But here’s the kicker, when I arrive on their site there is not much content on the their blog and it is very quiet.  So what makes you think that my giving you a link exchange will magically drive traffic to your blog.  It doesn’t work that way!

Let me let you in on a little secret.  In order to get traffic to your site, you have to put in some work.  It doesn’t matter how many people you ask to for link exchanges, if you don’t have quality content and interact with others, it won’t work anyway.

Let me tell you how things work here at Become a Healthier You and then I will give you some tips on how you can drive visitors to your blog.

This blog:

  • Is a Do Follow Blog
  • CommentLuv Enabled
  • Allows guest posts
  • Shows Top Commentators in sidebar
  • Has a blogroll in sidebar (not a link exchange)
  • Sometimes links to other bloggers within a post
  • Shares articles of other fellow bloggers on other social media sites.

Here are seven blogging activities you should begin doing immediately, especially if you are concerned about increasing traffic to your blog.

  1. Write valuable content. How many times have you heard people say “content is king?  Well, just maybe these people know what they’re talking about.  Don’t just write anything; write quality content with your readers and other people in mind.  Provide content that will be most helpful and valuable to anyone who lands on your blog.
  2. Be consistent with blog posting. You must have a regular blog posting schedule be it once a week or seven days a week.  Whatever you choose make sure you stick to a schedule because bloggers love consistency.
  3. Learn more about blogging. There are many articles online and books on the subject of blogging.   Not to mention boot-camps (affiliate link) and communities you can join that will help you become a better blogger.
  4. Interact with other bloggers. We bloggers thrive on interaction with other fellow bloggers.  Don’t be shy about interaction and engagement.  Leave a thoughtful comment on other people’s blogs and most of the time they will visit you and possibly comment on your blog.
  5. Be active on social media/networking sites. If you have joined Twitter or other sites, make sure you network with others on those sites.  Don’t be quiet, make a little noise.  Promote your blog and articles, but don’t over do it.  Maybe a few people will find you that way.
  6. Work hard at working your blog. Blogging isn’t easy.  It takes time to build your readership and traffic.  There are activities that you must do in order for you to get the results you desire.
  7. Do unto others as you would have them do unto you. Never expect someone to automatically give you a link exchange or share your posts on other social media sites.  Give your fellow bloggers a reason to share your content.

Conclusion

Start blogging and stop trying to get over by using other people.  This hardly ever works.  Fellow bloggers will see how hard you are working and will be compelled to support you in whatever ways they can.  But don’t ask others for link exchanges especially when they don’t know you from Adam.

Work hard and you will reap the rewards.  Hey isn’t that how life works anyway, so why would blogging be any different.  Put in your blood, sweat and tears and watch how your blog evolves.  You will be amazed!

Discussion: What advice do you have for your fellow blogger?

Blog hard and blog often!

Image: Arvind Balaraman

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Category: Blogging

About Evelyn Parham: Hi, I'm Evelyn and I write about healthy living, vegan and blogging topics. I obtained a Master's of Science in biology from Tennessee Technological University. I enjoy reading, writing, singing and dancing. View author profile.

Comments (31)

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  1. 4 Ways to Get Your Links on Other Blogs | Become a Healthier You says:
    August 25, 2011 at 10:36 AM

    [...] wrote a post last year entitled, Stop Asking for Link Exchanges and Start Blogging. This post gives you a good idea about what I think.  If your blog has helpful information that [...]

    Reply
  2. 17 Brilliant Bloggers Talk About Blogrolls and Link Love — BlogWorld Expo Blog says:
    February 18, 2011 at 10:07 AM

    [...] Stop Asking for Link Exchanges and Start Blogging by Evelyn Parham (@evelyn_parham) [...]

    Reply
  3. Kim says:
    December 7, 2010 at 11:24 AM

    you ROCK! Hehe, tell it like it is!! Love it, all sooo true!

    Reply
  4. Sandra Lee says:
    November 21, 2010 at 3:00 AM

    Evelyn, I like it when you are fiery! All the basics are in this post. It’s good.
    Sandra Lee recently posted..Blogging Insight – Make new friends- endlessly!My Profile

    Reply
  5. Chioma says:
    November 18, 2010 at 8:58 AM

    Hi Evelyn,

    What a straight shooter you are in this post. I do love it. I agree with you that blogging demands hardwork which in turn brings the reward. Thanks for sharing.

    Reply
  6. Fran Aslam says:
    November 16, 2010 at 12:53 PM

    Hi Evelyn:

    I came to your site because I am enjoying your comment on my blog. But at the same time I do not you to think of me as forgetful or liar. I know I promised you to email. got busy because of the contest going on. Time passed by and I did not write. I am sorry for all that.

    But still I did not forget it, but I have out grown the motivation to do that because.

    So I read your current blog post. You are right about the expectations of people. They do not write a post for themselves but ask you to give a link to their site.

    So you do know everything about backlinks. Good great.

    I liked how you wrote this blog post.

    fran A
    Fran Aslam recently posted..Online Coaching – Sample Marketing Plan for Coaching and MentoringMy Profile

    Reply
    • Evelyn Parham
      Twitter:
      says:
      November 16, 2010 at 6:26 PM

      Hi Fran,

      I know people get busy and I totally understand that. I appreciate you taking the time to stop by and let me know the situation.

      I know a little about backlinks, but not nearly as much as I need to know. I still have a lot to learn. ;)

      Thanks!

      Take care,

      Evelyn

      Reply
  7. Zengirl
    Twitter:
    says:
    November 15, 2010 at 7:39 PM

    Hi Evelyn,

    I thought I had left a comment (twice) as first time it did not go through…Humm, wonder what happened?

    I agree with you on these link exchange things, I have not asked anyone but I sure do get emails from stranger whom I do not know. At first I used to reply back to people but now I just ignore it as frequency is increasing too.

    Preeti
    Zengirl recently posted..Giving Thanks- How Gratitude Can Improve Your LifeMy Profile

    Reply
    • Evelyn Parham
      Twitter:
      says:
      November 15, 2010 at 8:44 PM

      Hey Preeti,

      For some reason both comments were in my spam folder. I don’t know why that happened??? But you’re okay now.

      The funniest thing happened to me today…I got an email for a link exchange. I laughed out loud because I wondered if the person sending the request even read this post.

      Thanks for stopping by and for your support!

      Take care,

      Evelyn

      Reply
  8. Zengirl
    Twitter:
    says:
    November 14, 2010 at 10:41 AM

    Evelyn,

    Amen to that! I also do not do link exchange but if they are friend (friendship takes time) then I might put them in my blog friend list, which is in my “start here” section. I just ignore emails of such requests.

    Blogging takes time and consistency and it is not easy, sometimes it is tough to see point of keeping on blogging.
    Zengirl recently posted..Do you like Cherry How about Cherry on the TopMy Profile

    Reply
    • Evelyn Parham
      Twitter:
      says:
      November 15, 2010 at 8:41 PM

      Hi Preeti,

      Thanks for sharing!

      I do the same thing. Ignore the email requests.

      I totally agree…blogging does take time and consistency. I had to take me a little break so I could refresh. So I know what you mean. ;)

      Take care,

      Evelyn

      Reply
  9. Aaron says:
    November 14, 2010 at 6:02 AM

    I’ve got emails where the sender has already added my link, assuming that I’ll say yes to their request. When I check out their site there is a link to mine but it’s on a page that you can’t find from their home page!
    A while back, before I added a blog to my site I would accept link trades, and found that some sites would remove my link after a while. I got tired of checking up on the other sites and now I just delete the emails asking for me to add their link.
    Aaron recently posted..Is Daylight Saving Making You FatMy Profile

    Reply
  10. Ryan Biddulph says:
    November 13, 2010 at 4:55 PM

    Hi Evelyn,

    I did have one link up on my blog put I pulled it earlier today. It was relevant and generated some traffic but it was just extra baggage. Lesson learned.

    Many who seek link exchanges simply seek traffic. If they followed your tips of providing top notch content on a consistent basis they wouldn’t feel the need to do exchanges.

    In addition to providing the value-added content it doesn’t hurt to network with fellow bloggers too ;)

    Thanks for sharing and have a great weekend!

    Ryan
    Ryan Biddulph recently posted..Why It&8217s a Dangerous Thing to Write Only for Your Blogging BuddiesMy Profile

    Reply
  11. Susan
    Twitter:
    says:
    November 12, 2010 at 3:13 PM

    Hey Evelyn, this is insanely awesome! I get those damn email requests every day and they drive me nuts! I have never once responded to them mostly because of what you say – their blogs blow and why would I put their website on mine? Besides, isn’t reciprical links an obsolete theory anyway? IDK, but I don’t do it. Thanks for the great reminder!
    Susan recently posted..Is Milk the Secret Ingredient for Weight LossMy Profile

    Reply
  12. Gregory Elfrink says:
    November 12, 2010 at 7:38 AM

    Great post here. I believe asking for a link exchange is not exactly selfish, I have done it very blatantly and received great results from it. I think honestly it is the #1 way to building big humps of traffic to your blog in a really easy way.

    Well, easy for content marketers at least.

    I do agree with you on value. In fact if you just consistently add value every single day to your blog as much as possible, overtime all the promotion stuff will start taking care of itself for you as you build a fanbase.

    Value is definitely the numero-uno for blogging. And well, everything haha.
    Gregory Elfrink recently posted..How You Know You are Doing Something SpecialMy Profile

    Reply
    • Evelyn Parham
      Twitter:
      says:
      November 12, 2010 at 11:51 AM

      Hi Greg,

      Welcome to this blog and thank you for commenting!

      That’s great that you’ve gotten good results! Did you already have a some type of relationship with those people that you asked for link exchanges? Just curious.

      Thanks for sharing and chiming in!

      Take care,

      Evelyn

      Reply
  13. Jarret says:
    November 12, 2010 at 1:41 AM

    Hi Evelyn, I get a ton of link exchange requests for the Hive Health Media blog from the site’s contact form. As in your situation, the sites often are completely unrelated to our health and fitness niche.

    I have noticed a strange trend though. On the one occasion where I did click the link out of curiosity in response to one of these link requests, the site looked incredibly spammy, had 2 blog posts, yet had a Google PageRank of 5. After checking into it, I found that this and other sites requesting link requests are often blogs hosted on newly-acquired expired domains.

    The almost always have a link list of some really bad sites as well.

    Overall, I find that these are more often spammers than real people–spam’s always annoying though, isn’t it?
    Jarret recently posted..Benefits of Marine Pine Bark Extract – PycnogenolMy Profile

    Reply
    • Evelyn Parham
      Twitter:
      says:
      November 12, 2010 at 11:58 AM

      Hi Jarret,

      Thanks for chiming in on this topic!

      I’ve experienced that with a few ping backs. Upon further investigation, I learn that it is spam.
      It is very annoying!

      Thanks for stopping by!

      Take care,

      Evelyn

      Reply
      • Jarret says:
        November 13, 2010 at 4:33 PM

        Hey Evelyn, yeah the Pingback spam is really annoying because you can’t often tell without clicking on the pingback first.

        If someone links to one of my posts, I want to give them their pingback link.

        On the other hand, Hive Health Media gets about 40-80 pingbacks per day. Nearly all of them are Pingback spam either from spammy sites that add 40 related posts to generate pingbacks and traffic, sites that do the same thing and add a “nofollow tag,” or sites that haven’t linked to the website at all.

        I’ve heard that spammers use pingback programs that ping other websites even if they haven’t linked to them in order to generate traffic.

        I haven’t found a good solution for this yet, if you have any tips, let me know!
        Jarret recently posted..Benefits of Marine Pine Bark Extract – PycnogenolMy Profile

        Reply
  14. Patricia
    Twitter:
    says:
    November 11, 2010 at 8:41 PM

    Hi Evelyn

    Firstly thanks for visiting my guest post. Glad you liked Rick’s blog. He is a brilliant writer and genuine nice guy.

    I’ve never seen you write like this before! You obviously have cause to and I am starting to understand why.

    I haven’t got the profile on the net that you have but from my short time blogging, I am now starting to get requests from people who haven’t had anything to do with my blog. Not commented, not tweeted my posts just want to guest post, link to my blog…..you know how it goes.

    I freaked out a bit when I started getting these requests from strangers. Then realised that I do have a choice here. I don’t have to answer their emails or grant their requests! It is my blog and I can keep running it the way I want to. Phew. That was a relief.

    Patricia Perth Australia
    Patricia recently posted..Lavender Product Review-The Truth- The Whole Truth…My Profile

    Reply
    • Evelyn Parham
      Twitter:
      says:
      November 11, 2010 at 11:07 PM

      Hi Patricia,

      Oh, you are more than welcome! Rick is an awesome writer!

      Yeah, I had been holding back on this for a while and I just had to let it out. Now, I feel better! :)

      I say, don’t do anything unless you feel comfortable doing it. It may seem rude to not answer emails or requests, but they will soon get the picture.

      Thanks for chiming in and for stopping by!

      Take care,

      Evelyn

      Reply
  15. Rick LaPoint says:
    November 11, 2010 at 6:02 PM

    Hi Evelyn,

    I came by to see who was so nice to retweet me, (actually it was Patricia’s guest post, but she’s sleeping, so you yer stuck with me) and I stuck around for a bit because I love your site!

    Thanks again for the RT.

    Rick
    Rick LaPoint recently posted..Blogging and Short Attention… uhm- What Was I SayingMy Profile

    Reply
  16. Tweets that mention Stop asking for Link Exchanges and Stat Blogging -- Topsy.com says:
    November 11, 2010 at 11:35 AM

    [...] This post was mentioned on Twitter by Evelyn Parham, Hive Health Media. Hive Health Media said: RT @evelyn_parham Stop Asking for Link Exchanges and Start Blogging: Stop Asking for Link Exchange… http://bit.ly/bo06Sw #health #diet [...]

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